Subtitles, or other text data in the form of closed captions, are often overlaid on video content so that the text can be read at the same time as viewing the video. Closed captioning refers to any system that receives, formats, and displays text on a television or other display to thereby allow viewers to access additional or interpretive information about programming content. Closed captions may display a transcription of the audio portion of a program as it progresses, thereby allowing the hearing impaired and others to follow the program content without listening to the audio track associated with the programming.
Many broadcast television programmes include closed caption information. For conventional analogue NTSC programming, captions are “encoded” into line 21 of the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of the broadcast signal. For conventional digital (e.g., ATSC) programming, several streams are typically encoded in the digital multiplex, including a set of up to sixty-three caption streams encoded in EIA-708 format. Other closed captioning formats or standards may be implemented in the United States or elsewhere. Generally, the closed caption text is provided with the programming content, and the receiver generates text that overlies the received imagery in a “scrolling”, “pop-on” or “paint-on” manner. Motion pictures, video disk (e.g., DVD) content, streamed audio/video, video games and the like may similarly incorporate closed captions using any number of standard or non-standard techniques.
Closed captioning causes a conflict with video display because the text, which may be presented in a surrounding box of some kind, will obscure at least a portion of the video over which it is positioned.
The positioning of the text data may not always be carefully thought out. Typically, subtitles are placed at the bottom centre of the picture as indicated in FIG. 1. This can obscure vital information. For example, in bars or other such venues there are often periods when televisions are displaying video without sound, but there is information displayed within the video picture in this location. Examples of this would be sports shows or news programmes, in which one or more banners, or tickers (sometimes referred to also as “crawlers”) or other type of additional information are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Since the sound is turned down it is desirable to allow subtitles or closed captions to be displayed. However, typically this would obscure useful information such as a news ticker.
To avoid obscuring crucial elements of the video display, such as sports scores at the bottom of the screen, the subtitle provider may specify the area of the screen in which the subtitles are to be displayed. However, this can often result in poorer viewing experiences, obscuring other areas of the screen that may also be important.
We have appreciated that it would be advantageous to overcome this and other disadvantages with known systems.